Tbivision.Com April/May 2017
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Factual TBIvision.com April/May 2017 Distributed by Produced by NHNZ in co-production with PBS, CCTV9, ZDF, ZDF Enterprises, Discovery International, Channel 9 and Arte FactualpOFC AprMay17.indd 1 22/03/2017 17:55 Anzeige_Titelgestaltung_TBI_Big_Pacific_MIPTV2017_RZ_02.indd 1 13.03.17 22:23 FactualpIFC RGTV AprMay17.indd 1 16/03/2017 17:41 CONTENTS INSIDE THIS ISSUE This issue 12 2 2 Factual franchise building Channels and factual producers are increasingly looking to build doc series into fully-fledged franchises, TBI discovers 4 Viewpoint Derren Lawford, creative director, Woodcut Media 6 CNN thriving amid Trump media assault CNN boss Jeff Zucker issues a strong defence of the news channel amid attacks from Donald Trump and says recent events are good for business 8 8 Deep blue chip First there was Planet Earth and then Planet Earth II. Now there is Blue Planet II 10 NHK’s Phoenix to rise in Cannes Tokyo Phoenix: the rise of Modern Japan offers a unique insight into the Japanese capital. TBI hears from its French and Japanese producers 12 We’re going on a millennials hunt Factual shows are gaining fans, Emily Bright talks to execs about how docs can woo millennials 16 Last Word Thomas Viner, creative director, Pioneer Productions 10 Editor Stewart Clarke • [email protected] • @TBIstewart Television Business International (USPS 003-807) is published bi-monthly (Jan, Mar, Apr, Jun, Aug and Oct) by KNect365 TMT, Maple House,149 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 7AD, United Kingdom. The Deputy editor Jesse Whittock • [email protected] • @TBI_Jesse 2006 US Institutional subscription price is$255. Airfreight and mailing in the USA by Agent named Air Business, C/O Priority Airfreight NY Ltd, 147-29 182nd Street, Jamaica, NY11413. Periodical postage paid Sales manager Kate Roach • [email protected] at Jamaica NY 11431. 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Air Business Ltd is acting as our mailing agent. 149 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 7AD © 2017 Informa UK Ltd All rights reserved Tel: +44 (0)20 7017 5000 Reproduction without permission is prohibited e-mail: [email protected] web: www.tbivision.com Printed in England by Wyndeham Grange Ltd, Southwick, West Sussex BN4 4EJ @TBImagazine For the latest in TV programming news visit TBIVISION.COM TBI Factual April/May 2017 1 Factualp01 Contents AprMay17scJW.indd 3 22/03/2017 21:50 TBI FACTUAL DOCUMENTARY TRENDS Franchise building At the high-end docs are becoming big franchises and at the other end of the market lower cost franchises are being built around experts and on-screen talent. TBI investigates Apocalypse The Battle for Verdun 2 TBI Factual April/May 2017 For the latest in TV programming news visit TBIVISION.COM Factualp02-03 Trends AprMay17scJW.indd 2 22/03/2017 21:52 TBI FACTUAL DOCUMENTARY TRENDS rands and franchise building are historically associated with movies and TV drama but in recent times have become common in the world of docs. “The key trend Bwe see, and not just in history and wildlife, is docs constructed as brands,” says Eurodata TV research executive Candice Allesandra. She cites French-originated Apocalypse is a prime example. Clarke Costelle & Co. made the original series Apocalypse: the Second World War, which performed well on France Télévisions and internationally. It has gone on to spawn Apocalypse Hitler, Apocalypse Stalin, Apocalypse 10 Lives, Apocalypse World War 1 and now, two-parter Apocalypse: The Battle for Verdun, which FranceTV Distribution is selling. Apocalypse: an Impossible Peace is, meanwhile, in production. “The producers have constructed a new brand and that’s something viewers can identify,” Allesandra says. Planet Earth II and now Blue Planet II (see page 8) are other examples of blue-chip doc brands, but there are other ways of creating a doc franchise. “It can also help to have a famous host who embodies the subject, such as David Attenborough,” Allesandra says. “In the UK there’s also the likes of Lucy Worsley and Reggie Yates.” The former’s numerous BBC shows include British History’s Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley and Six Wives with Lucy Worsley. Yates has fronted Reggie Yates in a Texan Jail, Reggie Yates in the Mexican Drug War andReggie Yates: Hidden Australia (which has forced the BBC to apologise for misleading viewers after a funeral wake was allegedly misrepresented as a party). Presenter Planet Earth II and journalist Stacey Dooley can be added to the list with her Stacey Dooley Investigates series. fronted accessible docs for Nelonen and YLE in reality well suited to factual projects. Meanwhile, The presenter-led franchise is not, however, Finland and SVT in Sweden. a divide is opening between the main SVOD just a UK phenomenon. In the Nordics, stage Technological innovation is also driving platforms and the TV players. and film actor Ville Juhana Haapasalo has change in the doc world, with 4K and virtual “Digital players are less interested in animals and history and prefer to tell a contemporary story, such as Netflix withMaking a Murderer or hostages series Captive, or Amazon’s Novak Djokovic doc Novak,” Allesandra says. “The key trend we see, and not Not everything has to be big, she adds. “The trend we see is for either big, identifiable just in history and wildlife, is docs brands, or smaller docs with specialised subject constructed as brands” matter,” she says. “These can be successful Candice Allesandra too, especially in regions such as Scandinavia, which is well known for making factual projects about societal topics, which are usually smaller and more local.” TBI For the latest in TV programming news visit TBIVISION.COM TBI Factual April/May 2017 3 Factualp02-03 Trends AprMay17scJW.indd 3 22/03/2017 21:52 VIEWPOINT DERREN LAWFORD, CREATIVE DIRECTOR, WOODCUT MEDIA VIEWPOINT DERREN LAWFORD How film talent got invested in docs ctors have been more great example is Kevin Hart’s two-hour special this article, which is indicative of another than doing their bit for in which he will star and executive produce factor driving the world of Hollywood actors documentaries for quite some – Kevin Hart Presents: The Black Man’s Guide to and documentaries together: the TV industry’s time. Take Robert Redford, one History. His audience is used to him making “pursuit of premium”, propelled into overdrive of the driving forces behind them laugh and no doubt he and the History by the likes of Netflix. SundanceA Film Festival. In 2011, four out of five cable net hope he’ll do that and help them learn The SVOD services have positioned of the Oscar-nominated documentaries were a thing or two along the way. themselves as premium global platforms Sundance films first. Then there’s Tribeca, also Then, of course, there are the unadulterated with big-budget drama, critically-acclaimed driven by a Hollywood heavyweight in Robert passion projects that actors are keen to be comedies and high-quality documentary De Niro. involved in. At Woodcut Media, we’ve been acquisitions, and the bar for tent-pole shows What’s new, though, is how invested major fortunate enough to work on two Idris Elba has risen significantly across all the major Hollywood actors are becoming in individual documentaries, which delve into his passion for platforms and TV networks with global reach. films and projects, motivated by a combination music (Mandela, My Dad and Me) and fashion Discovery’s Idris Elba: Fighter has certainly of factors. (Cut From a Different Cloth), both of which have upped the ante for immersive docs. For one, documentaries can give you an been picked up by Netflix globally. These types of programmes are not without overtly political platform that your acting roles However, I must confess that as a producer, risk, and arguably the people most in danger might not allow. it’s the films where fiction meets fact and life are the producers themselves. Why? Because Leonardo DiCaprio’s passion for environmental imitates art that you kick yourself for not having increasingly the investment of an actor in issues is well documented off screen, and he thought of. unscripted is as much a financial move as it is brought Before the Flood, executive produced by Take Morgan Freeman’s Emmy-nominated personal and professional. Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese, to the turn in The Story of God. The proposition is Appian Way Productions, Green Door big screen as a theatrical doc before it aired on devastatingly simple and effective: “Watch the Pictures, HartBeat Productions and National Geographic in the US. man who’s played God explore God for real.” It Revelations Entertainment, the production Fellow Academy Award winner Geena Davis was so good, National Geographic has ordered companies owned by Leonardo, Idris, Kevin has been an outspoken critic of female portrayal a second series. and Morgan respectively, are all involved in in TV and film, which saw her set up the Geena Here we see the actor working as a shortcut the actors’ factual films. Davis Institute on Gender in Media. She’s to big topics, very much like Di Caprio’s next This means that inevitably there’s an now teamed up with CreativeChaos VMG to big factual outing, Frontiersmen, an eight-part element of editorial control and financial gain produce an untitled feature documentary on extravaganza, again for History, which builds that needs to be shared. From my experience gender disparity in Hollywood.